Our Best Advice

ANIMALS AND HUMANS

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 | Our Best Advice | No Comments

Temple Grandin provides an informative way to help create the happiest life for our animals in her book Animals Make Us Human. Drawing on latest research and her own work, Grandin identifies some core emotional needs of animals including dogs, cats, farm and zoo animals, and explains how to fulfill them. Grandin’s work teaches us to challenge our assumptions about animal contentment and offers advice on how to provide the healthiest environment for all kinds of animals by learning to recognize their needs.

Ceasar Millan, takes a different approach, but also very informative. Many have recommended his show, The Dog Whisperer, you may already be familiar with. The show features many different types of dogs, some you may have never seen before. The issues Millan deals with appear to be seemingly endless! He always has great tips for how to approach a variety of issues you will find interesting, even if you don’t own a dog. Knowing how to deal with dogs is helpful in case you run into a disagreeable or hostile dog. You don’t need to have one to learn and be prepared. It could save your, or a child’s life, another human, or animal. A great way to make new friends too!

Vet Visit Tips

Fear of falling off the table is the main cause of nervous pets at the vet’s according to Temple Grandin. To make things easier, bring a non-stick mat for your animal to stand on. Don’t make jerky motions. If you have a bath mat that the pet is familiar with, that works really well. Hold the animal snugly (but not too tight) during the exam. Allow 20-30 minutes for a panicked animal to calm down.

For Animals And Kids

Deep pressure and being “wrapped” is calming. Children might like to wrap themselves or be wrapped in blankets burrito-style. Crawling under a cushion or pillows when a child needs calming works great, or they may simply find it soothing. This could help a child go to sleep. Be careful to ensure there is always breathing room and open source for oxygen. Also helpful for animals that love to get embroiled in blankets and pillows, as anyone who’s got pets knows.

Research tips:

When you need to go beyond Google, try these research tools:

1) Pubmed – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

2) Scirus.com – http://www.scirus.com/

3) Google scholar – http://scholar.google.com/

No matter how serious or unnerving animals may behave, they usually can be rehabilitated if we are committed to working on it. There are unending insights into dog and animal behavior for guidelines to keep you sane, and your animal lovable, or to just simply express our compassion for the creatures on this amazing planet we inhabit.

Have A FRUITFUL And Happy Day!

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Torrance, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Westwood, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, & the greater United States…

Our Best Advice has been brought to you by www.ISAstaffing.com, renowned Best of The Best in Household Work and Domestic Help staffing. Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friend featured link to this blog, and our Domestic Staffing website to pass our HOT TIPS and renowned services. THANKS!

Tags: animal love, ANIMALS, Animals and Humans, Animals Make Us Human, cats, Ceasar Millan, child care, dogs, google, governess, guidelines, healthy environment, Kids, nanny, nanny care, pet care, taming pets, Temple Grandin, The Dog Whisperer, zoo animals

VALENTINES DAY – ECO AND ROMANTIC

Sunday, February 8th, 2009 | Our Best Advice | No Comments

On this Valentine’s Day, Go “Eco” and “Romantic!” It is my understanding there is no such thing as a “selfish gene” as Richard Dawkins (the renowned genome scientist) believes. Love transforms all, and all exists in love first including “selfishness”, which is merely an aspect of ignorance as a fear based separation illusion. So my advice for this Valentines Day is to love more deeply, and our HOT TIP for today is to Go GREEN with LOVE on Valentine’s Day and every day.

In these hard economic times when so many are deprived of so much we all could put out extra effort to share the love broadly. What we can do is to create or give gifts that have minimal impact on our environment. This Valentine’s Day follow tips that keep the planet alive and also restore harmony. Hand made gifts are always so cool and takes it up as a more memorable exchange. Take photos of yourself making the gift and include a small handmade photo album with love notes as part of your present. Hand made “eco friendly chocolates” from recipes found on line are easy if chocolate is your thing.

Make an extra gift for a stranger as “potlatch”, the Native American Indian ritual of “give away”. Give a gift to someone you don’t know on the street as you pass them by, or donate to an organization that supports eco friendly giving. Don’t forget “Fair Trade bubbly” to go with your love if Champaign is your thing.

Avoid candles made of petroleum paraffin that produce soot and release harmful benzene and toluene chemical toxins. Find natural beeswax or soy candles with a wick that has no lead insert in it. Sexy and romantic can also be green. Forget the dozen red roses and buy a baby tree, or organic herbs that you both can plant in your lovers back yard together. Offer to cook the herbs in a memorable meal and give them a LOVE MEAL IOU included with your gift.

Take a romantic stroll around your neighborhood and spend time getting to know your neighbors by sharing the love. Leave them a treat in their mailbox with a Valentine’s Card. Don’t forget the age old “Breakfast In Bed” we all love; a gift that’s pocket friendly too.

Give handmade Valentine’s Cards made with recycled paper. A great way to recycle grocery bag brown paper is to cut it up and turn it into hand crafted cards you paint and glue meaningful things onto. Use eco-friendly glue! Organic cotton T-shirts with your declaration of love painted on it can replace your Valentine’s Card. Roll it up and include a poem of love painted on a large green leaf from your garden. Have your significant other insert the leaf into a book with other books kept on top for a month, and it will dry out beautifully preserved.  If you’re good with computer graphics, you might design a photo collage made up of green hearts or wild grass or green flowers of love. Print it on nice paper and insert it into a frame you’ve made. Or, you can give a micro-loan in someone’s name included into your Valentine’s Day card through an organization like Kiva, an amazing and highly effective program helping small businesses to get started all over the world. Micro-loans as grass roots program will help get us out of global recession and likely become the permanent way of social networking economics.

As we know, this is a small planet in a big back yard we call the Cosmos. Think Cosmic Valentines. Rather then a day of celebrating love, give it up daily — offer it up “Eco” and “Romantic!”

Have A Happy And Green Valentine’s Day!

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Torrance, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Westwood, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, & the greater United States…

Our Best Advice has been brought to you by www.ISAstaffing.com, renowned Best of The Best in Household Work and Domestic Help staffing. Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friend featured link to this blog, and our Domestic Staffing website to pass our HOT TIPS and renowned services. THANKS!

Tags: candles, CHEFS, eco friendly, ecological, environmentally friendly, garden, Gifts, GREEN, handmade cards, Herbs, Holiday, Holidays, love poems, meals, natural, organic, organic cotton, plants, Romantic, romantic dinners, small planet, soy candles, Valentines Day, yard